Stand Alone Society
by This Guy 222
Summary: Publicly, we all know Kirito has only ever lost to 1 person in SAO, but what if there was more? Follows the story of a man not named Kirito in his struggle to survive in this death game called Sword Art Online. I started this story in response to the NaNoWriMo challenge. Mostly OC's. Modified a bit to fit the story, like the use of weapons other than swords. Please read & review


Authors Notes (AN) - NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to basically challenge yourself to start writing a novel at the start of the month and reach 50 000 words by the end of the month.

Doesn't have to be perfect, no matter how good or bad, the only goal is to get to 50 000 words, so trying not to edit too much in the beginning and stick to a draft until the end to hit as many words as possible.

This will be ongoing until the end of this month or until I get writers block, which will probably be before the end of the month lol

Wish me luck

Side Note (SN) - Also doing this through Facebook because it's easier to work on while I'm not at home, so I'm not limited to doing it only on my personal computer.

**Stand Alone Society**

**Prologue**

Unbelievable. To think something like this would happen, it's unheard of. Just moments ago the genius known as Kayaba Akihiko who created the NerveGear and is the Development Director and Game Master of Sword Art Online, also known as SAO, teleported all current players online to the Starting City of Aincrad and revealed to us all that this is no longer just a Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (VRMMORPG), but now a death game.

The only way to escape this so called 'Death Game', would be to reach the final floor level of Aincrad and defeat the final boss or if ones HP bar dropped to 0, which would result in an In Real Life (IRL) death.

The once praised NerveGear has now become the single most devastating piece of gaming machinery in the current century, trapping all 10 000 users currently playing SAO. In the case of 'dying' in game, the said player would also die in the real world via NerveGear frying the brain. If someone from the real world were to try and remove or tamper with the NerveGear, it would also produce the same result, thus there is no way to save the players except to hope that they would be able to defeat the game using their own power.

For the first 10 seconds after this declaration, the only words to describe the atmosphere would be horror and shock. The only sounds to be heard was the Background Music (BGM) and Sound Effects (SFX) provided by the system. A mellow, relaxing type of music played which in normal situations would usually bring about certain calm, but now just played in deep contrast to everyone's feelings and simply had the opposite effect.

First silence, then madness. Once the shock wore off and the reality of the situation sunk in, most if not all players broke out into a deafening bellow of screams and wails. The sounds reaching all the way to the farthest parts of the Starting City, 'causing even the system generated non-hostile animals and critters to run, hide or fly away.

He didn't know what to do, all he knew was that he had to get away from this all or be devoured by the terror threatening to consume him. So he ran, hard. As fast and as far as his virtual mind and body could handle. Through the buildings, through the fields, straight into the forest surrounded by mysterious monsters still unknown to him and many other players.

Only after tripping over the root of a tree out of place did he finally stop. Face first in the ground, he stayed down for a while panting from the mental and physical exhaustion which bind him.

'How... How is this possible? This kind of thing... It's inhuman! Shouldn't there be a firewall in place in case of emergencies? An auto-eject to protect the users? What kind of bullshit is this!'

Such thoughts went through his mind as his heart continued to race. For the first time in his life did he feel true fear. Unfortunately he didn't have the luxury of time to indulge in these thoughts as he was pulled back to reality by the sound of breaking twigs and a soft yet fierce growl.

His ears reacted before his eyes, focusing on the sounds around him. The growl must have been at least 10 meters away and judging from the lack of overlapping growls, there was only one.

Next his body reacted to the electrical signals sent by his brain. Feeling returned to his senses as he moved his fingers along the ground. Dirt… leaves… twigs… no doubt a forest. He hadn't noticed where he was with his mind in the state it was earlier, but now thanks to this predicament his head was clear and focused, whether it was a good or bad situation was still hard to tell.

Finally his eyes adjusted and focused as he tilted his face up and away from the ground. In spite of it still being day time, the forest canopy covered most of the sunlight bathing the area in an eerie dark blue. One could see from a distance, but attention to detail would be impossible unless you were but a few meters away. Normally you would be able to notice a monster from afar but with the mind preoccupied in frenzied thoughts, it was more than enough for one to sneak up unnoticed.

An intense chill ran down his spine so he instinctively rolled hard to the right. A second later he heard the sound of something landing hard on the spot where he was just moments ago. Avoiding what would have been a critical blow; he stood up and faced his unknown opponent.

Mostly brown fur with the ends of its tail, legs and nose white, the monster in question was undoubtedly canine, a wolf in particular. Its body was probably half the size bigger than the average wolf. Mouth opened with clenched teeth, you could see tiny drops of saliva drop from its mouth. Its bright red eyes gave it a slightly demonic look.

The colour of the cursor above its head was a bright red, indicating its aggression level to be very aggressive. Looking beside the cursor, the monster's name was coloured a deep magenta, meaning it was more than a few levels higher than him. The colour of monsters' names change depending on the difference in levels starting at yellow, orange, red being around the same level, magenta and finally dark red.

One would be surprised to think of how lazy the God of SAO was at the moment of this monster's creation. The name of this beast was... Wolf.

'... Seriously?'

He couldn't help but take a second to think that this is the result of all the hard work and effort put into SAO by the acclaimed genius, Kayaba Akihiko. Before he had a chance to further dwell on this phenomenon the Wolf growled fiercely and charged at him once more.

With no time to think his body moved on its own accord by crossing his arms in front of his face. He didn't realize his eyes were closed until he felt the impact on his arms as the Wolf barged into his front, sending him flying into a tree. His hit points (HP) bar decreased by 20% just from the one attack.

Staring at the snarling face of the Wolf, legs stretched across the ground with his back resting on the side of a tree and arms hanging useless by his side, he thought to himself -

'Is this it..? Is this how I'm going to die..? in a fucking game?'


End file.
